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Secrets to productivity, work/life balance and success

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Secrets To Productivity, Work/Life Balance And SuccessMy wife called it “productivity porn”, and now it appears to have stuck. An Introcution To Productivity Porn: How To Be Lazy, Productive AndLast year, I started writing a regular column for Geekwire.com focused on workplace and Successful 2professional productivity. When I shared the story of how the term “productivity porn” Seven Tips To Make Yourself More Efficient Right Now .............................. 4came to be (see the ﬁrst article in this guide for an explanation), the name stuck. Seven Ways To Achieve Work/Life Balance................................. 6Other than that title, I promise it’s all safe reading, and worth checking out to get tips Seven Tricks For Beatingon work/life balance, avoiding procrastination, going paperless and more. The following Procrastination ...................................... 8pages include several columns from the series as well as additional productivity best Seven Steps To Going Paperless ..... 9practice articles from the Matt on Marketing blog. How To Achieve “Inbox Zero” In 60 Minutes Or Less ........................10 Eliminating Meetings: Eight Ways To Tackle The Biggest Time-WasterMatt Heinz In Your Business ..................................11President, Heinz Marketing Inc Nine Productive Things To Do During A Flight Delay........................13matt@heinzmarketing.com David Allen: “The Three Reasons You’re Floundering” ...........................14 The Three-Second Rule For Email Inbox Management ...........................15 Twelve Time Wasters That Will Kill Your Startup’s Productivity..............16 How To Keep Your Big Company From Acting Like A Start-up ...........18 New Year’s Resolutions: Eleven Ways To Increase Productivity And Success..........................................19 About The Author...............................21

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An Introduction To Productivity Porn:How To Be Lazy, Productive And SuccessfulSome of the most successful and productive people I know 2. Delegate And Outsourceare lazy. They’ll tell you so. David Allen, author of Getting No matter your role or level or experience, you shouldn’tThings Done and the godfather of productivity. Lazy. He be doing everything that’s on your plate. There arewill tell you this at the beginning of his seminar. things you should delegate to others on your team, orSeth Godin, who writes daily blog posts and has published outsource to someone who’s better suited to do it. Somefour hundred books and continues to launch new businesses. activities should be delegated because they’ll get doneLazy. He said so in a talk he gave in Seattle last year. better by someone else. Other tasks can be done faster orThere’s a theme and a lesson here. You can be highly cheaper elsewhere. But be crisp about what your time isproductive and very successful—but also lazy. The trick, of best spent doing, and what would be easier/faster/bettercourse, is to make better use of your time. Work smarter, to do elsewhere (for a fraction of your time to instructnot harder. and/or manage).A few years ago I started spending a lot more time 3. Do Less (But Choose Wisely)learning about productivity—how it works, how to make Cut at least 33 percent of the work from your currentit work for me, and how to constantly make my own plate. Would you really miss it? Would it really impactproductivity system better. My wife, affectionately, started your performance, your company’s performance, or yourreferring to my collection of regular productivity reading customer’s overall satisfaction? I’m not talking aboutas “Productivity Porn.” short-term conversations or loss. It’s critical to triageOver my next several pieces, I’ll dive deeper into how you what you have on your plate against what will have long-can put the lessons behind Productivity Porn to work in term, lasting and scalable impact.your own life (professional and personal). I’ll save you thetime I’ve spent reading and digesting the myriad options 4. Say “No” More Often (Or, Stop Volunteering So Much)and perspectives out there, and instead summarize and Type-A people and start-up junkies want to lead. Theyoutline the speciﬁc tactics and best practices that work to want to own things. They’re more likely to say “yes” tohelp busy professionals, start-up founders and others get a new project, or volunteer for something new. Dial thatfar more done in less time. back a bit. The potentially awkward and uncomfortableIf you occasionally feel out of control, are unable to focus moment in which you need to decline a new opportunityor prioritize, lack the work/life balance you want, or will save you hours or days of time down the road.notice that you’re often too tactical vs. strategic, these tips 5. Networkare for you. The more people you know, the more likely you’ll ﬁndTo start, here are eight speciﬁc best practices that, together, people you can turn to when you need help, or forform many of the core tenets of what Productivity Porn something that can help both of you. It doesn’t worktries to teach and enable for its followers. if you’re merely adding volume to your network and1. Do The Opposite Of What follower lists. But if you genuinely and consistentlyThe Lizard Brain Tells You To Do add new qualiﬁed people to your network, the chances that they’ll be able to help you sooner or later increasesSeth’s right, we all have a lizard brain telling us what exponentially.to do. It’s what makes us procrastinate, keeps us fromshipping, and leads us away from taking risks or having 6. Listen, Watch And Learn Morecourage to do something new. Seth told a crowd in Seattle The next time you’re in a meeting, shut up. Spendlast year that the secret to his success has been simply to do more time listening to others, asking for their feedback,the opposite of what his lizard brain would prefer that he watching what’s going on. In too many meetings, peopledo. Not bad advice. compete for attention. They talk over each other. They ﬁght to see who can say the smart thing ﬁrst. It’s a losing proposition for everyone. The more you listen, the more 2

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likely someone in the meeting will stop the conversation 8. Stop Working So Many Nights And Weekendsand ask what you think. At that point, all eyes are on you. The amount of work you have will consume the time youIn less time, and after listening to the preceding debate, give it. And if you cut yourself off at 6 p.m. on weekdaysyour feedback will more likely be thoughtful, better and on Friday night, it forces you to be more focused andreceived, and could drive the output of the meeting more productive during your active work hours. You know thatfrequently. you’re checking ESPN headlines or Facebook or other7. Have Other People Read For You non-work stuff during the workday. What if you cut some of that out and forced yourself to focus (and focus on theI could spend all day reading the various sources of content shorter list of work we identiﬁed above)? You’ll get more(print, online, Web, email, blog, video, etc.) that I subscribe done, in less time, and feel better about refreshing nightsto. My favorite sources of content are those where others and weekends.have already done far more reading, and have ﬁltered thebest content up to me. Read less but learn more. The beneﬁts of all this, of course, is not just greater efﬁciency and productivity but also a positive impact on your own clarity and sanity. Next time, we’ll dive into some speciﬁc, tactical best practices to dip your toe into the Productivity Porn water. 3

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Seven Tips To Make Yourself More Efficient Right NowYou’re busy and don’t have time to read a lengthy intro(especially in a piece about productivity). So let’s get right happy birthday ﬁrst thingto it. Plenty of productivity gurus recommend an entire,complicated system to get yourself organized and workingoptimally. First, however, give yourself an immediate boostin productivity by adopting one or several of the tacticsbelow. Starting tomorrow, they can help you get more time important I may have missed yesterdayback and get more done every day. across my network, and comment back as necessary1. Get Up 30 Minutes EarlierWould it really be that hard to get up 30 minutes earlier? (email or hand written) as necessaryThis may not be your most productive awake time, but anextra 30 minutes (when the rest of the house is still sleeping)could be used for reading, exercise, whatever you want. This and prioritized (either today or for later)alone gives you an extra 3.5 hours a week, and that’s a lot oftime. Plus, I bet that extra 30 minutes makes you feel more ensure I have every resource necessary to get themahead of the day and in charge of what’s ahead. done2. Do Your Most Important 1–2 Tasks/Projects FIRSTEvery Day (Before Email And Voicemail) conﬁrmation email if necessary)At the beginning of each day, you already know whatone or two things are most important to accomplish. But I’ll need there, any homework I needed to complete, etc.)most of us, before tackling those projects, check email 4. Keep Your Email Offline, All The Timeand voicemail and quickly get distracted by the day’sinterruptions and ﬁre drills. Nine times out of ten, those If you use Outlook in particular, right click on the icondistractions can wait until your most important tasks are in the lower right-hand corner of your screen and selectﬁnished. Get them done ﬁrst, and I guarantee you’ll feel “Work Ofﬂine”. This will “freeze” the email in your inbox(and be) far more productive every day. currently, and queue up anything in your Outbox to sync when you want to. This helps you focus on what’s at hand,This is more than just a prioritized list of projects or tasks. without getting distracted in real time by new incomingBe explicit about the top one or two tasks, as they’re likely messages. Click the send/receive button when you wantfar more important than what’s farther down the list. to, but otherwise stay more focused and more productiveCrossing tasks off makes you feel good, but ignoring the without the constant distractions.top priority isn’t going to move you forward fast enough. 5. Sort Emails Into Three Folders To Focus On3. Set A Morning “Daily Do” Reminder What’s Most Important, Right NowThere’s likely a core set of tasks you could execute in I aggressively use Outlook’s email rules to manage my30 minutes or less, every day and probably earlier in the inbox. This automates much of the ﬁling and sorting I’dmorning, that would accomplish a number of things quickly otherwise have to do manually, especially when Outlookand help you feel far more on top of things. They’d keep your can recognize patterns and help me save certain types ofnetworking active, ensure proper follow-up on things that emails for quick scanning or processing later.happened yesterday, plus ensure you’re completely preparedfor the day ahead. For example, I subscribe to several email newsletters, but every one is automatically ﬁled in a “reading” folder (moreSet a daily meeting with yourself every work day, Monday on that below). I get “watched item” alerts from eBay,through Friday, for 30 minutes. Do it early morning which also get ﬁled in a separate folder. There are certain(before you get to the ofﬁce) with a cup of coffee, or begin reports I’m copied on, some of which I rarely read buta habit of starting your daily ofﬁce routine on your own, want ﬁled away for future reference. I have an Outlookfree of distraction, and knock these tasks out. rule that does all of this ﬁling for me automatically. ThisThe speciﬁc task list will be unique to you, but here’s a tool alone saves me countless clicks and minutes every day.sampling of what’s on my “daily do” list every day: 4

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For short-term processing, I typically sort the rest of my 7. Carry Idea Capture Tools With You At All Timesemail into three folders: Action, Waiting For, and Reading. Mind like water, memory like a sieve.Action: Anything that takes longer than two minutes goes At least ﬁve times in the past week, I’ve had an idea whileinto the Action folder. Very, very few of these requests driving. Thanks to Dial2Do (and hands-free Bluetooth ifneed immediate response. Putting them together in an you’re reading this, highway patrol), I quickly leave myself“action” folder allows me to tackle them later, and all at a message. When I eventually check my email (where myonce. message has been translated and delivered), I realized allWaiting For: I often send an email to a colleague or ﬁve times that I’d already forgotten the idea. My brain hadvendor, and wait for a response. I typically blind copy moved onto something else, and that thought was lost inmyself on these emails, and have an Outlook rule set the process.up so that these emails automatically get sorted into a Without the instant capture, those ideas may have been“Waiting For” folder. This gives me a complete inventory gone forever.of the outstanding emails I’ve sent for which I haven’treceived a response. I’ll quickly scan this folder a few times The best way to allow yourself to be innovative, to free-a week, deleting emails that have been responded to, and form new ideas, is to practice “mind like water.” Thatoccasionally following up with people that haven’t yet means, basically, to let your brain improvise. Let it gotaken action. where it wants. And when it lands on something good, write it down (or record it), so you can stop thinkingReading: I get to this once a day, usually in the morning about it and return your brain to the improvisational stage.or evening. None of it is urgent, and I have no problemdeleting an unread newsletter if the folder is getting too The trick to this, of course, is to write down or otherwiselarge, or if more recent emails (especially in the case of record as many of those “random” ideas and thoughtsnews summaries) are piling up. as possible, as soon as they happen. That means carrying pen and paper as often as possible. Using services suchI ﬁle these folders in my Outlook folders with an “@” as Dial2Do or a digital voice recorder when driving orsymbol in front of them, so that they all stack up at the top exercising. Or AquaNotes in the shower.of my Outlook folders list. This way they’re always in frontof me for easy clicking and viewing when I’m ready. Not every idea is brilliant. Most, in, fact, are either mundane or, on second thought, not a priority right now anyway. But6. Use The Two-Minute Rule you’re not worried about quality, just capture rate.Each time a new email arrives in your inbox, ask yourself:“Can I respond to this in two minutes or less?” If so, thenrespond right away! Don’t click or open another messagejust to read it. Be diligent and respond to the message youhave open quickly before moving on 5

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Seven Ways To Achieve Work/Life BalanceProductivity too often can become more than a means 3. Schedule Time Off And Stick To Itto an end. If left unchecked, being more productive can You can’t work all the time. Even if you love it, even if partssimply make you feel compelled to ﬁll additional time of your business feel like fun, you have to step away. Thiswith more work. That’s a ﬁne outcome if you need to (or includes scheduling real vacation time. Block time well inwant to) get more done. But balance—time away from advance, book tickets and hotels, and get away.work—is equally important to being more productiveduring work hours as well. Better yet, do the same thing for a 24-hour period over the weekend (say Saturday afternoon to SundaySuccessful productivity makes you more efﬁcient and afternoon). Get your spouse or signiﬁcant other to helpeffective with the time you choose to give to work, so you stay accountable to this if you need the help. But thisthat you can choose to spend more time with your family, will force you to be a bit more efﬁcient during your workon hobbies, just “vegging” out, or simply recharging to time leading up to those breaks, and it will make yoube more effective the next day. Below are seven speciﬁc more energized when you pick things back up.things you can start doing right away to take back moretime and increase your work/life balance. 4. Exercise And Eat Better1. Take Tuesday And Thursday Evenings Off from now and shame yourself into sticking to a trainingLeave the ofﬁce as close to 5 p.m. as possible, and turn plan. Bring your lunch to work more often instead ofeverything off until the next morning. No email, no grabbing an expensive and greasy sandwich. Be reallyCrackberry, no working. I guarantee those days will be careful about what you eat and drink when traveling (andyour most productive of the week. Why? You have a consider getting up just 30 minutes earlier to hit thedeadline. You can’t leave things to work on or “ﬁnish up” hotel gym brieﬂy). You will feel better, have more energylater in the evening. You’ll be more focused on cleaning and endurance if you do these things.your plate and preparing for the next day before you stopworking for the day at 5 p.m. 5. Find A Hobby (Ideally One That Doesn’t Include A Screen)2. Take A Lunch And Get To Work (But Not On Work) I’m a truly awful woodworker. I’m the kind of guy whoAt least 2–3 times a week, break for lunch. Get away from will measure ﬁve times, cut once, and still screw it upyour desk, leave the building if possible, and separate half of the time. But after sitting on my butt in frontyourself from the day’s immediate priorities. Walk in the of a computer and in meetings most of the day (andsunshine, eat in a park, but do one of two things: one after putting the kids to bed), it’s really relaxing to dooption is to have lunch by yourself, but with purpose. something with my hands. Plus, the required focus ofBring a speciﬁc topic you want to think about and focus doing something precise like woodworking (not toon—without interruptions, and outside of your normal mention trying not to cut off a ﬁnger) forces me to stopenvironment. Bring a paper and pen to record your ideas thinking about work. Even if I just have an hour or less,as you eat. The other option is to be more intentional it’s time well spent.about catching up with those outside of your ofﬁce, your Find what you’re excited about—gardening,company or even your industry. Find people you can scrapbooking, bowling, whatever—and make a point oflunch with and learn from. Gain from their perspective engaging in it on a regular basis. Join a group, get friendswell beyond your own, to bring renewed energy and to participate, and otherwise make commitments so youcreativity to your own areas of expertise and focus. stick with it. 6

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6. Prepare For Tomorrow 7. Leave Work For TomorrowBefore You Leave The Office Today You can’t get everything done today, nor should you.Dedicate 15 minutes at the end of your day to prepare Take time to go home, be with your family, watch afor tomorrow. Assess what was completed today, what ballgame, get some exercise and enough sleep. Thisremains, what new priorities may have been added to your means being comfortable with leaving some work forplate, and write a quick list of the top three to ﬁve things another day, as well as leaving other projects on the tablethat need to happen tomorrow. Additionally designate the indeﬁnitely.one most important thing you need to accomplish, which You can’t do everything, and you need balance—not justwill be what you do ﬁrst when you get in. for yourself and your family, but to make tomorrow aThis frees your mind to focus on whatever you need to more productive day as well.that evening, without worrying about how to make yournext day (or at least the next morning) more efﬁcient. 7

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Seven Tricks For Beating ProcrastinationWe procrastinate for a variety of reasons. Fear. It’s hard enough not to sift through email, the stack ofIntimidation. Laziness. Distractions. All reasonable papers on your desk, or click the RSS feed tab on yourobstacles. But if you’re prioritized your tasks and projects browser. When it’s really time to work, turn off as manycorrectly, the work still needs to get done. distractions as possible. Close your email and your browserI’ve found that procrastination can be the single-largest if possible, close your ofﬁce door or put on headphoneshurdle keeping individuals at all levels from being more (even if there’s nothing coming through them), andproductive and getting more done. It’s a silent killer, easy put your phone on forward. Eliminate anything andto justify in the moment, until that high-potential time has everything that could be a distraction (especially for thosepassed and you still aren’t done. critical ﬁrst 10 minutes you need to gain some momentum with the project).Everybody I know who has a proactive strategy to ﬁghtprocrastination still suffers from it regularly, but there are 5. Shorten Your To-Do Listseveral tricks and best practices that can help you win the Sometimes procrastination rears its ugly head when youﬁght far more often than you lose it. Here are seven tips have too many things to choose from. If your to-do listto get you started. is too long, that alone could be intimidating enough to1. Break What You’re Doing Into Smaller Tasks draw your attention elsewhere. What’s the most important thing to do on that list? What things can you explicitly putThe project at hand can seem too large and intimidating. on an “optional” list, or even just a list that can be tackledSo instead of tackling it all at once, break it down to tomorrow, so that today’s list is both prioritized andindividual tasks. If you’re writing a column like this, for manageable? Getting throughtwo to three critical tasks isexample, start with a brainstorm of ideas or an outline. much easier than staring at 8–10 on your list.That’s likely the ﬁrst step of the project anyway, andgetting that done gives you both progress and momentum. 6. Create Uninterrupted Time To Focus2. Use The 10-Minute Rule To Get Started Much has been written about how massively distracting it is to start and stop projects all day. Eliminating distractionsNo matter how big or intimidating the task in front of around you will help, but try to set up longer periods ofyou, giving yourself a limit of just 10 minutes to get it time to focus and execute. Brad Feld recently talked aboutstarted often feels far more manageable and something this in his blog, referring to one of his portfolio company’syou could get rolling on immediately. Most of the time, desire to be a “monastic startup”—meaning they focus onyou’ll get through that 10 minutes quickly but also feel giving their developers as much long, uninterrupted timelike you’re already on a roll and will want to continue. to work as possible. When you have something importantSometimes all it takes is getting started to break through to get done, block your calendar and give yourself the timethe procrastination. Worst case, you stop after 10 minutes you need to mentally and fully engage.but already, mentally, have a far better picture of whatit’ll take to ﬁnish (which, in turn, will make future 7. Cancel Unimportant Commitments On Your Calendarprocrastination for that speciﬁc project far less likely). I’m sure your calendar is full, but is that next meeting3. Put A Reward At The Finish Line really that important? Is it more important than getting today’s most important project or task completed?What do you get when you ﬁnish? What do you NOT Attending optional or less-important meetings is a formget until you ﬁnish? Make it something fun and of procrastination. Cancelling, delegating or deferringmotivational—a coffee run, a piece of chocolate, 15 non-critical meetings not only eliminates this particularminutes reading your favorite blogs, something enjoyable procrastination excuse, but allow for more of thethat will further motivate you to get off your duff and get “monastic” time you need to get things done.started already. These are all easier said than done, and (if you’re like me)4. Eliminate Distractions you’ll still suffer from occasional bouts of procrastination.It’s way too easy to entertain distractions when you’d This article after all, was supposed to be written yesterday.prefer to do almost anything but the job in front of you. 8

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Seven Steps To Going PaperlessI love paper. I hate paper. Independent of format, print or place for that too (keep reading). I have a physical “inbox”digital, what I want is information at my ﬁngertips when at both my ofﬁce and home ofﬁce to collect these physicalI need it, wherever I am. I want instant capture of ideas, documents and reminders for processing.to-do’s and notes (which for me still requires paper) butI want that paper to disappear as quickly as possible. 4. Scan All Documents Into A Secure, Cloud-Based Filing SystemLess paper helps me focus. Less paper makes me moreefﬁcient. Less paper is a competitive differentiator. You can use Dropbox, box.net, SharePoint, Google, doesn’t matter where. The key elements are organizationThis isn’t paper-free. I’m not there, and doubt I ever will and access. I use an organizational system that’s based onbe. But I’ve eliminated at least 80 percent of paper from a combination of function and customer/client names. Allmy life with a signiﬁcant, measurable improvement in of my meeting notes for the past three-plus years are savedefﬁciency, access and results. in a secure database online—organized by topic, client andHere are the eight steps I use to make paperless a reality in date. These documents are, in turn, available to me literallymy life. anywhere—at my ofﬁce, on my laptop, my iPhone andI love paper. I hate paper. iPad. I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap to quickly transform two- sided documents into PDFs.Independent of format, print or digital, what I want isinformation at my ﬁngertips when I need it, wherever 5. Online Task, Calendar And Reminder ManagementI am. I want instant capture of ideas, to-do’s and notes My preferred system is still Outlook. I’m familiar with(which for me still requires paper) but I want that paper to it, our Exchange server makes it available anywhere, anddisappear as quickly as possible. it nicely integrates several common systems I use dailyLess paper helps me focus. Less paper makes me more (email, calendar, tasks, contacts). There are countless toolsefﬁcient. Less paper is a competitive differentiator. you can use similarly today, may for a lot less money (i.e.This isn’t paper-free. I’m not there, and doubt I ever will RememberTheMilk, Toodledo, etc.)be. But I’ve eliminated at least 80 percent of paper from 6. Actively Use Mobile Apps Formy life with a signiﬁcant, measurable improvement in Further Information Captureefﬁciency, access and results. Whenever I can, I capture information straight into digitalHere are the eight steps I use to make paperless a reality in systems. I’m getting better at using Evernote for notemy life. capture especially when traveling—at events, conferences,1. Use Paper First As A Capture Tool and other places where carrying just my iPad is ideal. In the car and elsewhere I don’t have access to paper, I’m aI keep an 8.5 x11 inch pad of paper with me for all big fan of Dial2Do, which via speed-dial quickly records ameetings, and I put the date, topic and/or client at the top. voice instruction and translates that into email (where I canThroughout the meeting, I take notes, put boxes for to-do’s, move it quickly into the appropriate next-step system).like normal. I’ll do the same throughout the day in othersituations with index cards, torn out pages from magazines, 7. Ubiquitous Moleskine Notebookanything physical that can quickly summarize and/or remind During the workday, I carry this with me at all times. It’sme of what was discussed and what I need to do. always in my right inside jacket pocket, and a pen is clipped2. Process Paper Into Online Systems right next to it. Fast and easy note taking and to-do recording when I don’t want to interrupt the rhythm of aThe to-do’s on those meeting summaries are translated conversation by ﬂipping open a device. Any next steps orinto my Outlook Task lists. Meetings get scheduled, to-do’s are processed using the steps above, and “ﬁnished”outsources tasks get assigned. pages are clipped in the corner so I can quickly ﬂip to the3. Process All Other Inbound Paper Similarly latest pages in the notebook.This includes business cards, letters, bills, anything else If you’ve read this far, you’re likely either interested in tryingyou get that’s paper-based. Everything has a purpose, a something similar, or think I’m a nut. Whatever you choosenext step, something you need to do as a result. If it’s just as your own process (online or ofﬂine, digital or paper) clearlysomething you want to keep for reference later, there’s a isn’t going to work if it doesn’t make you comfortable and isn’t something you can sustain on a daily basis. 9

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How To Achieve “Inbox Zero” In 60 Minutes Or LessWhether you perpetually have hundreds if not thousands If you were a priority participant or contributor, youof emails in your inbox, or you’re coming back from a wouldn’t have been on the CC line. And if someone doeslong weekend or true, “unplugged” extended vacation, really need your attention on one of these, they’ll ﬁnd youyou have a problem. It’s not realistic to declare “email directly now that they know you’re back.bankruptcy” and start from scratch, but the last thing you Write down the time and number of unopened emailswant to do is waste your entire ﬁrst day sorting through again. You will be amazed at how may emails you’veemail. That’s no way to get real work done. already eliminated from your inbox, and how quickly itLast year I came back from a short two-week paternity happened. The next few steps will take a little more time,break to more than 2,000 unread emails. An hour later I but this quick update will help motivate you.was down to 12 emails in my inbox. Complete, Respond To And Delete Any EmailDon’t get me wrong, I had a ton to do and get caught up That Takes A Minute Or Lesson. But my inbox was not my to-do list. To quickly getcaught up and stay focused on what was immediately most These might not be the more important and urgent tasksimportant the rest of the day and week, here were my best on your list today, but you can bang through these quickly,practices for sorting through an overwhelming inbox. get them off your plate, and it’ll not only make you feel good to get stuff done but will take advantage of the “fog”(These tips work whether you’re coming back from a long you’ll still have getting back into work mode. None of usperiod away or if you’ve just let your inbox get out of are 100 percent ready to tackle our most important workcontrol.) the morning after being away. Getting through the quick,Write Down The Time And Number Of Unopened Emails fast and easy stuff makes you immediately productive but in a way that helps get your brain and creative juices backThe job at hand may intimidate you, but it’s going to be in gear.really cool to look back at where you started from. Trust me. With What’s Left, Make Project And To-Do ListsDelete Everything That’s Not Important Or Urgent For The Next Three To Four DaysThis means status notiﬁcations, spam, newsletters, Twitter The rest of the content of your inbox is going to take youalerts, etc. You don’t really need to be caught up on each longer to complete, but it doesn’t all have to get doneand every one of these, especially since new ones will right now, or even today. Start making lists of projects andstart ﬂowing later the same day. To quickly get through tasks to complete in the coming days, and separate thosethe backlog of email and focus on what’s important lists by deadline or context. If it doesn’t have to get donemoving forward, it’s critical that you declare “information today, put it on tomorrow’s to-do list. You’ll likely tacklebankruptcy” on the vast majority of information you some of those things later today anyway, but put only theotherwise may have consumed in the time you were away. critical items on today’s list. Whether you use OutlookSort Email By Conversations And Delete All Tasks, pen and paper, or something in between, get the listBut The Most Recent Mail organized in a way that isn’t intimidating and isn’t in your inbox.Gmail does a great job of this for you automatically, butOutlook makes it easy to do as well (so does the Mac, even Congratulations! You just sorted hundreds of emails inif you’re using Outlook). Don’t worry about attachments record time. Before you take a victory lap, or get lost inyou may have missed. Worst case you can go ﬁnd them your RSS reader, dig immediately into your priority tasksin your Deleted Items folders, but chances are you won’t for today. Get at least one done before moving on.need them (or they’ve been made irrelevant by someone All the work above has helped you ease back into work,else’s response or a more updated version anyway). gradually start getting things of substance off your plate. Now your plate is clear, the backlog is gone, and you canSeparate All Emails Where You’re Only On The CC Line focus on what’s most urgent and most important.And Put Them In A Separate Folder To Read LaterMost of these you will scan and delete quickly, eventually,but these emails don’t need your attention right away. 10

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Eliminating Meetings: Eight Ways To TackleThe Biggest Time-Waster In Your BusinessYou’ve heard it (or probably said it) many times before: or additions to the agenda, but once you get there, stick to“I can’t wait to get out of all these meetings so I can it! If other ideas come up, great, but those are for anotheractually get some work done!” meeting (or ofﬂine discussion between fewer people, orMeetings are critical to most organizations, but the vast email, etc., but not in this meeting).majority of meetings you attend on a regular basis are too It’s possible that a clear objective and agenda up front willlong, unfocused, unnecessary, or otherwise wasting your time. help you realize that the meeting isn’t necessary in the ﬁrstFor most of us, seeking to get more done in less time, place, that fewer people are required, or that it needs moremeetings are the single-worst time waster and barrier to research or due diligence before the group is gathered.productivity in our professional lives. Many workers think an agenda takes too much time, butYou may not be able to eliminate every meeting on your in reality a well-written agenda will render many meetingsschedule. Some are quite valuable. But if you were to moot before they begin.inventory the regular meetings on your calendar, and 4. Clearly Identify The Right Attendees And Their Rolesthose on your schedule this coming week, how many doyou think will really help you get your job done? How Most meetings include too many people. There are usuallymany will result in positive, proactive action, direction or a core group of attendees who do the work, and othersprogress for your organization? that mostly observe or attend because they want to be “in the know.”How many of those meetings could be reduced, mademore productive, or eliminated altogether? Force your meetings to require and include fewer people. Use a good meeting summary to communicate outcomesYou’re not going to boil the ocean (or clear your entire to those who need to know, but don’t need to be thereschedule) this week. But, starting with meetings you as it happens. Reading a summary takes a fraction of thecontrol or inﬂuence directly, apply the following eight best time, typically, as the meeting itself.practices to make meetings more productive, make themshorter, or get rid of them. Should one of those attendees be an administrative assistant whose role is to write the meeting summary and1. Establish Clear Objectives And Expected Outcomes document action items? It’s possible that this investmentWhy is the meeting necessary? What does success look like of their time will save your organization many hours ofat the end of the meeting? Clearly deﬁne these objectives time from more senior and more expensive resources whoand outcomes, and ensure everyone invited understands otherwise would have “had to be there” to keep track ofthem as well. what was discussed.2. Determine The Right Format And Length 5. Crisply Document Action Items And Owners, And Follow UpDo you really need to get together in person? Can thismeeting take place via a conference call instead? If the Too many meetings (even those that were worthwhilebusiness is quick, can it be done in a stand-up environment to begin with) end without any resolution or next steps,(where attendees stand and conduct business quickly)? and attendees walk away without a clear, across-the-board understanding of what’s required next and who owns what.And please (please) stop using a full hour as the defaultmeeting time. If you truly need a few key stakeholders Someone in the room needs to be responsible fortogether live to resolve an issue, but it can be done documenting action items and owners. This is anotherquickly, schedule 15 minutes. reason why having an administrative assistant present may be the most important role and investment in the meetingUnderstand your objectives and scope of the discussion to maximize it’s immediate and long-term value.well enough to more accurately set the time required.Then focus on getting it done and get back to work! 6. No Laptops Or Smartphones3. Publish An Agenda In Advance If you have time to check email in the meeting, you either don’t really need to be there or you’re wasting everyoneIn addition to objectives, publish a clear agenda of what’s else’s time by not giving the meeting your full attention.required in the meeting. Allow attendees to suggest edits 11

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If attendees are checking their phones, it’s a clear sign that “end” of the meeting to ensure something of value isyou’re off track, off agenda, and no longer running an recovered, which usually ends in frustration, confusion andefﬁcient meeting. inconsistent expectations among departing attendees ofForce laptops and smartphones out of the room. Consider what they agreed to and who’s doing what.requiring attendees to leave all devices at their desks. 8. Set Criteria For And Regularly ReviewWatch how much more quickly everyone is motivated to “Recurring” Meeting Requestsget business done and end the meeting! Your calendar full of meetings is bad enough, but I bet7. Be On Time Or Don’t Participate At All a signiﬁcant portion of those meetings show up againRespect each other’s time. If your organization has too and again. The “recurring” meeting is the single-biggestmany back-to-back meetings, consider working with culprit of wasting your time, as they’re too often a lazyyour IT department to add a natural ﬁve-minute break way for an organization to update itself on things that55 minutes into the hour, so that you have at least ﬁve could be communicated in other formats (email, memos,minutes to end the previous meeting, get to the next one, wikis, etc.) or conducted as-necessary, with fewer people,and start on time. without requiring a regularly-scheduled meeting.Many meetings end late (therefore making the next These same “recurring” meetings almost always go on farmeeting start late) because they aren’t well managed, don’t longer than they’re valuable. I recommend ending eachinclude clear roles or objectives, and don’t have anyone recurring meeting with a quick look around the roomhelping to document next steps and owners afterward. to make sure the next one is necessary. Cut off thoseWhen these roles are missing, attendees scramble at the recurring meetings as soon as they lose their value. 12

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Nine Productive Things To Do During A Flight DelayTraveling is an exercise in wasted time. The lines, the company, to keep on the right track? I recommend havingsecurity pat-downs, and the inevitable delays. Clearly you an inventory of your current projects with you on a regularwant your ﬂight to leave on time, but if you use the time basis (even if it’s recorded online somewhere). When youright, a ﬂight delay can be an excellent way to catch up on have time (and ideally at least once a week), work throughwork you otherwise might not prioritize. that list and make sure each has a speciﬁc next step thatDo it right, and a ﬂight delay can end up saving you time, someone owns. This is pure GTD.increasing your efﬁciency and accelerating your success 5. Prep For Or Recap Your Recent Tripand results. Really! If you’re on your way out of town, make sure you have aHere are nine things I try to do during ﬂight delays to comprehensive inventory of your priorities. What wouldachieve those goals. success look like on the trip home? What do you need to1. Keep A List Of Things To Brainstorm accomplish, gather, execute or ﬁnalize before you step back on a plane? If you’re on your way back home, writeThere are always things I need to do that require little more up a short recap of your immediate to-do’s. When you getthan my brain and something to write on. Brainstorm topics home and back in the ofﬁce, you’ll immediately be busycan include an upcoming blog post (write the outline!), the and behind. If you write up your to-do’s from the tripkey points for a plan you need to develop, new channels now, you’re far more likely to get them done (and beneﬁtyou want to test in an upcoming marketing campaign, new from the results).offers to throw into an existing channel or sales effort, etc.Oftentimes, the brainstorm is the hard work. Once you have 6. Networkbasic ideas down, ﬁnishing the work (or plan, or blog post, Email former colleagues. Write a few unsolicited LinkedInetc.) is like running downhill. testimonials. Use the downtime to get back in front of2. Do A Brain Dump people who have helped you in the past, whom you might be able to help today, and who could be a partner in theThere are lots of things in your brain that come and go. future.And unless you put them into a trusted system, you’rebound to never act on those ideas. Some are strategic, 7. Catch Up On Emailsome are tactical, but if they’re important to you they needto be somewhere you can reﬂect on and prioritize them caveat—do it in ofﬂine mode only. Ignore the temptation(now or later). Take time during a ﬂight delay to let your to import new emails that will only distract you. Instead,brain wander and write down whatever comes up. Could get caught up on the backlog (there’s good stuff inbe a new product idea, a reminder to buy cat food when there!). Focus on putting a few follow-up emails from youryou get home, whatever. recent trip in the Outbox to sync when you’re back online.3. Have A Call List Ready I promise this will get you working through your inbox and priorities faster.Which calls you do you need to return? Who haven’t youcaught up with in a long time? Consider the time zone of 8. Find Some Good Podcastswhomever you’re calling, but the list of people you could There are still a ton of great podcasts being produced oncall is extensive. A colleague with feedback on a project or a a regular basis, on every topic imaginable. Think of themnew idea. A friend who just got a promotion. Someone in like “listening to blog posts,” especially if you prioritizeyour network you haven’t connected with in far too long topics you’d otherwise want to read in a blog or newsletter(this could be a daily list). or trade magazine.Have a few emails that need returned? Make a call instead.I bet you have a far more productive, valuable conversation 9. Call Your Motherand exchange than what would have been delivered with a Or your father. Or your sister. Or your kids. Beingshort email. productive isn’t all about business. Our lives get so crazy, it’s easy to get sucked into work and neglect (or push to4. Inventory Your Bigger Projects another time) the people who matter most to us.What are the big projects you’re focused on right now? What do you do during a ﬂight delay? How do you useAre any of them stuck? Do any of them require a next that time?step from you, or something from another individual or 13

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David Allen: “The Three Reasons You’re Floundering”I’m a huge David Allen fan, using many of his productivity job of remembering and sorting. You’ll look at a list andtenets as the foundation of my personal productivity some part of you knows it’s not the whole list, so (a) yousystem. I highly recommend reading Getting Things Done won’t totally trust your choices and (b) you’ll still try toat minimum, and subscribing to his great newsletter. use your head to keep track. And if your brain still has thatIn a recent newsletter, Allen shared three common reasons job, instead of trusting your lists, you won’t be motivatedwhy people ﬂounder and, generally, fail to get work done. to keep your external system going (it will be too muchIt was a great write-up, and I wanted to share it here as work for the value received.) You’ll feel like it’s hard workwell. Thank you David for your ongoing, consistently to keep the list and will resist looking at it anyway becauseexcellent advice to keep us on track and moving forward. you’ll know it’s only partial and it will remind you that you’re “behind.”There are three common reasons why most people seemto ﬂounder with their personal workﬂow. At least part of Contextually Availabletheir systems lack one or more of three essential variables: She had been trying to organize action reminders byconsistent, current, and contextually available. This was project or by topic, instead of by where the reminderreafﬁrmed for me in a coaching session I did with a senior needs to be seen in order to get it done. Project thinkingexecutive. Here’s what showed up: and planning need to be seen by the title or topic, becauseConsistency that’s when we need to see that information (when we’re meeting or thinking about it). But reminders of the nextShe had some phone call reminders on pieces of paper, actions required need to be seen where those actions cansome in her head, some on sticky notes stuck to the phone. occur—phone calls when we’re at a phone; errands to do when we’re about to go out in our car; emails to sendof to-do’s in different media in different places is hugely when we’re at our computer; etc. Information and actioninefﬁcient and confusing. Information or reminder triggers reminders should always be stored in such a way that weof a speciﬁc type must be kept in the same place, the same are likely to see them when we need to see them, and canway, all the time. Otherwise we have to make the “what use or move on the data. If you store your Next Actiondo I do with this?” decision with every such particle, and reminders by what or who they’re about, every time you’rethat throws up a quick barrier to engagement. She decided in a place where you can do work (at a phone, at yourto go with simple ﬁle folders labeled “Calls—Work” and desk, in your car, at home) you’d have to look through“Calls— Personal”, as the best way to manage those, and dozens of folders or ﬁles to ﬁnd reminders of all yoursanity began to prevail. options. And when you’re running fast and only have aCurrency short window of time, you won’t really check the whole inventory and you’re likely to make choices from latest-No matter how consistent the system is, if it is not current and-loudest instead of objective overview.(i.e. completely up to date with all items in a category) itstill can’t be trusted in a way that relieves the psyche of the 14

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The Three-Second Rule For Email Inbox ManagementThere are books and books written about workplace So the three-second rule is simple. Read the email andproductivity, with a signiﬁcant portion of that literature force yourself to spend three seconds deciding what to do.devoted to our email inboxes. These best practices cover a It can be that you really need to schedule a meeting, orvariety of good ideas—from folder structure to automated you need to make a go/no go decision, or something elserules to delegation and so on. that’s simple but needed just a couple seconds to decide.But the single most important rule you can follow (even if Not every email is that fast and simple, but I bet you’ll ﬁndyou don’t do anything else, and your inbox is overﬂowing that a surprisingly high volume of your emails actually are.on a daily basis) is the three-second rule. By forcing yourself to take those three seconds, you’ll cleanIf you look at an email quickly but get intimidated about out your email very quickly, and free your time (and yourwhat to do next, the three-second rule is going to change mind) focus on the issues that need more of your devoted,your life. When we don’t know what to do next, or get uninterrupted time.intimidated about what that next step might be, we often Give it a shot today. Take some email from the weekend,defer the decision until later. Unfortunately, if you do this block out 15 minutes, and dig in. Let me know how it goes.for dozens or hundreds of emails a day, you’re just delayingdecisions and actions that, often, can be done in seconds orminutes themselves. 15

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Twelve Time Wasters That Will Kill Your Startup’s ProductivityThe last thing most start-ups can afford is wasted time. But too often, meetings are scheduled with little moreBy deﬁnition you’re still trying to ﬁgure out if you have than a subject line. What are you trying to accomplish?a business, what your customers will respond to, what Why does everyone on the invite list need to be there?strategies and tactics will scale revenue and, eventually, Why do you really need an hour for that conversation?lead to proﬁtability and some kind of exit. With a clear agenda, that hour-long meeting might beBut every day, we let time wasters creep into our done in 15 minutes if you stay focused and make goodbusinesses and cause massive distractions from the core process. Then you, at minimum, have 45 minutes back.work that will achieve our short and long-term goals. 4. Laptops In MeetingsBelow are twelve of the most common and damaging timewasters I see on a regular basis, as well as some ideas for There is no clearer sign that you’re either 1) in too manyhow to avoid or eliminate them in your business. meetings, or 2) don’t really need to be in the current meeting than if you spend most of the time with your nose1. Email in your laptop. You’re not getting much out of the meeting,We equate “doing email” with working, which of course is you’re distracting others, and you’re far less productive withwrong 90 percent of the time. Checking email most often whatever you’re doing vs. staying at your desk and focusingmeans we’re looking for work, instead of getting the core on the work at hand.priorities in front of us done. It feels good to respond to There are exceptions to this, of course. But most of theemail quickly, get a cleaner inbox, and get that small sense time, laptops aren’t used for taking notes or presentingof accomplishment. But it’s at the expense of real work. data or other activity germane to the meeting. If theWhat if you had your email in ofﬂine mode all the time? meeting is important and you need to be there, put theNew messages could only come in when you press the laptop down and keep the meeting focused. The time yousend/receive button. Outbound emails would queue up in invest now should save you and the organization far morethe Outbox. Then, start checking your email far less often. time long-term.This alone will help you and your organization get a ton 5. Multiple Monitorsmore work done. If used right, multiple monitors can make you more2. Meetings productive. Less time back and forth between windows,Most meetings either aren’t necessary or don’t need nearly for example, can add up to signiﬁcant time savings. Butthe number of people in attendance. Meetings are often if all you’re doing is keeping Outlook or HootSuiteused as a lazy way of trying to make decisions and update perennially up on one screen, you’re likely constantlyothers. Think about the meetings you’ve been in over the distracted by new messages when you should actually bepast couple weeks. How many could have been handled doing something else.instead via a quick phone call or someone in the group Unless your speciﬁc job is to manage your company’smaking a recommendation and soliciting feedback? How social channels, you don’t need to be in Twitter all day.many meetings did you attend where you could have instead You don’t need to respond or retweet right away. Youreceived a short, well-written summary afterward to stay could spend all day watching relevant Twitter feeds andup to date? get very little important/urgent work done. Use thoseNow look at your meeting schedule for the next couple multiple monitors judiciously.weeks. Which meetings aren’t really necessary? Which don’t 6. Commutingrequire you in attendance? I bet you and your entire teamcan get several hours of productive work time back this way. How many hours do you and your team waste behind a wheel, sitting in trafﬁc? This could be time back for work,3. Meetings Without Objectives Or Agendas or for play. Both are important. I could argue that the single-Recurring meetings are notoriously guilty of clogging up most important productivity tool for your team is a paid busyour team’s schedule as a means of updating on one thing pass each month. Put them on public transportation and theor another. Some are very worthwhile—a weekly review of a commute time is theirs again.pending launch, for example, where there’s a set agenda to Yes, taking the bus can take more overall time to andreview progress and metrics, and to discuss/resolve challenges. from work. But that’s time when someone else is driving, 16

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to use as you wish to get work done, catch up on some 10. Executing Without Customer Inputreading, or even just relax and prepare for the day ahead Are you building products based in input from a few key(or decompress on your way home). executives? Have you changed your direction (strategically orBut if you must continue driving, use tools like Dial2Do tactically on a particular project) based purely on the opinionto at least capture the good ideas you’ll have that of a board member? Is your development team triagingotherwise would be lost to the road. features based on anything other than customer input?7. Long To-Do Lists If you don’t have a crystal-clear understanding of your customer’s current priorities, pain points and needs, it canYou don’t need more things to do. You need fewer, more be very difﬁcult to execute efﬁciently. Product and featureimportant things to do. Fewer options, well chosen, triage based on what’s easiest to build may help you getwill help you get far more done for the business. This is a done faster, but may do nothing to solve the customer’sprioritization methodology you can teach your entire team. problem. Maybe the customer doesn’t actually need moreThe biggest problem with long to-do lists is that they features. Maybe they just need their current features toactually paralyze people who can’ decide what to do next. work better.It also makes it far too easy to get the quick and easy Building products and services that don’t directly map towork done ﬁrst, which makes you feel good but might customer needs and input can be an enormous productivitynot really move the ball forward. Short to-do lists—just killer for organizations. Because if they didn’t need it, or don’tﬁve important priorities and an explicit #1 priority for the value it, it might have just been a big waste of time.day—will actually help you get more done and make surethe right things get done ﬁrst more consistently. 11. Executing Without Metrics8. Preparing For Board Meetings You need to decide how you’re going to measure something before it’s built, or before execution begins,Have you ever added up the hours across the organization not after. Because if you can’t measure its value anddevoted to preparing for a recent board meeting? The impact, how do you know it was worthwhile? How docountless revisions to the slide deck, the new reports and you know if you should continue to invest? Metrics aren’tdata compiled from and by individuals across the company, always easy, but they’re table stakes for ensuring focus andand so on. And how much of that data and deck did you productivity.end up actually using?I’m willing to bet your investors didn’t intend to spend 12. Indecisivenesstheir money paying for your team to prepare for their You may not know what you’re doing. By deﬁnition, yourmeetings. I bet they also get more value out of discussions business is likely trying to do something completely new sothat focus on your challenges and obstacles vs. reviewing there will be plenty of ideas and tests that don’t succeed.data that’s more important for internal leadership teams Some decisions will be wrong. But the worst thing you canand perhaps individual board members to grok in a do is fail to make a decision, fail to give a project or featuredifferent context. or test a go or no-go call.More and more people are rethinking the board meeting, Use the data in front of you to 1) decide if it’s worthmany of them the same investors that start-ups think trying at all, and 2) decide how and when you’ll give it athey’re building those long decks for to begin with. Worth shot. This relates to full go-to-market strategies as well asreading a couple perspectives here, here and here. the smallest, tactical tests. Indecisiveness will paralyze your organization, especially if your employees are left guessing9. Not Firing Fast Enough which direction you want them to go. Not every decision can be made right away. But evenorganization and productivity. Cultural misﬁts will distract putting a timeline on a decision will let the organizationpeople. Employees who can’t focus, or aren’t right for the focus elsewhere and not get distracted in the gray.task at hand, are literally keeping someone more capablefrom getting it done more quickly. And the longer you This is far from a complete list. Very curious to hear inwait to make a change, the more damage you do to the the comments what other time-wasters may have invadedcompany—in terms of productivity and cultural integrity. your organization, which time wasters continue to give you a challenge, and what you may be doing or have done (successfully or unsuccessfully) to eliminate them. 17

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How To Keep Your Big Company From Acting Like A Start-UpMuch has been written about why it’s important for were forgotten a year later. Take the time to documentnew businesses and start-ups to keep from acting like what’s working, and keep them in a centralized, well-big companies. But that doesn’t mean the start-up organized place for anyone to access later.environment is a model of efﬁciency and productivity. Avoid Being Penny Wise And Pound FoolishThere are, in fact, several common start-up characteristicsthat big companies should avoid to increase their chances I attended a meeting with a start-up once where we spendof success and growth. Here are a few. an hour debating a $50-dollar expense for an upcoming event. The overall budget for the event was $10,000.Don’t Be So Reactive Was that a good use of an hour, with six people in theIt’s easy for any business to get into ﬁre-drill mode, and room? Or if there’s a clear opportunity to accelerate yourequally easy for start-ups to justify being reactive (they call goal achievement with something that wasn’t previouslyit “nimble”) to take advantage of market opportunities. budgeted, do you push for it anyway? Be frugal and watchBut even when you’re blazing a new trail, you need a plan. your pennies, at every stage of business growth, but keepYou should know where you’re going to focus—strategically, an lookout for opportunities that may not have beenfor the year, with your department, and yourself this month, planned, but will move you forward more quickly.week and today. Yes, there will still be ﬁre drills. But know Document And Leverage Processes For Repeatable Taskswhat’s important and put your focus there. The person responsible for executing your webinarsPlan Farther Ahead today? They likely won’t have that job in two years. SoRunning a business in a brand-new market isn’t an excuse when someone new steps in, will they know how to do itto execute without a plan. It’s also not an excuse to plan just as well? Too often in the start-up world, repeatablemonths or just a couple quarters ahead. Have a vision for tasks of all sorts are executed each time like it’s the ﬁrstwhat success looks like 12 months from now or more, and time, without following a process or set of best practices.use that vision to guide your daily decision-making and Document the repeatable tasks and projects so others canexecution today. easily step in and make them better moving forward.Institutionalize Learning And Best Practices Keep Your Best People For More Than One To Two YearsYou tried this trade show last year. What did you learn? Start-ups are notorious for high turnover rates. But ifWhat was worthwhile and what was a waste of time you’ve identiﬁed your “A” players, do what it takes to keepand money? It’s particularly easy for start-ups to let them. Find what motivates them the most (cash, stock,institutional knowledge leak out with role changes and responsibility, recognition) and ensure you’re executing aturnover, or simply because those minute best practices mutually-beneﬁcial value exchange. 18

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New Year’s Resolutions: Eleven Ways To Increase Productivity And SuccessWe have a speciﬁc, measurable set of objectives to drive ﬁrst place. And if I should be there, I should focus, beour business in the New Year, plus I’ve developed with my more productive, and hopefully help us get things donewife a set of goals for our family in 2013. and out of the meeting faster.The 11 resolutions below sit somewhere in the middle. 5. More Phone CallsMost are work-related, but together they represent aneffort to work smarter and more efﬁciently, helping me Yes, that’s right. I want to spend more time on the phone.get more done faster and increase time for family, personal Oftentimes it feels faster to shoot someone an email, butinterests and serendipitous professional opportunities. it’s more impactful to pick up the phone and talk to them. It can actually be more efﬁcient to do a real-time back-Without further adieu: and-forth via phone, and worst case (since few people use1. Read The Wall Street Journal Every Day the phone as much these days) it makes a great impression.I set this as a goal every year, it seems, and each year I get 6. More Offline Work Timea little better. It has been a mistake to try and get myself I’m writing this post with email in ofﬂine mode, and myto read the Journal every morning, as family commitments wiﬁ turned off. There are still distractions around me,(and early wake-ups from my one-year-old) made that but no new email notiﬁcations, no new tweets, no instanttough. But there’s no reason through the day or after messages. This post (and my content marketing strategy inthe kids go to bed I can’t get through the paper quickly. general) is a priority, so if I’m going to do it right, I wantEvery day there are at least a handful of articles that make to focus on getting it done well, done quickly, and doneme smarter, give me an excuse to share something with a period so I can move onto something else.prospect or partner, etc. 7. Refine My “Daily Do” List2. Inbox Zero Every morning at 7:30 I have a “meeting” with myselfMore on the full Getting Things Done (GTD) process that’s essentially a reminder to do a bunch of stuff daily.later, but I work hard to make my work surfaces as clean It has historically included things like follow-ups fromas possible, helping me focus on what’s most important yesterday’s meetings, conﬁrmations and prep for today’sright now. A big part of that is about email. I still think meetings, skill endorsements in LinkedIn, etc. I will reﬁneour email largely represents someone else’s priorities, and this list for the New Year, so that it includes daily to-should be kept ofﬂine most of the time, but there’s no do’s speciﬁc to our business goals as well as some of myreason not to actively triage inbox content according to personal goals for 2013. I highly recommend a similara set of rules that clear it out, set a task list for later, and daily habit for yourself. Some of those daily to-do’s maymove on to more important things right now. become second nature, but it’s great to have that daily3. No Working On Tuesday And Thursday Nights reminder to get it done regardless.I actually ﬁnd myself working smarter and harder during 8. Increase Automation (Do More, But Do Less)the day Tuesdays and Thursdays when I’ve done this in Most things you do on a regular basis can be automated,the past. I get more done these days, in other words, or done by someone else. I still make active use ofmeaningful work, vs. when I let things stretch into the TimeSvr, for example, to take care of repetitive tasks onevening. And I really love that extra time with my family, my behalf. I have Eloqua to automatically do lead follow-with personal interests, etc. Working less doesn’t always up (including with leads from SlideShare) where we usedmean working less. to do that manually. This year I want to automate more4. No Computers Or Devices In Meetings Unless Necessary of my social following and notiﬁcation tasks, plus increase synchronization of work done remotely.I am so bad at this, and there are times when a computeropen during a meeting makes sense. But that’s the 9. Better GTD Disciplineminority exception to the rule. In general, if I’m able to I’m a productivity porn nut, and David Allen’s Gettingstare at my laptop or smartphone during a fair portion of Things Done (GTD) methodology is at the core of mya meeting, I probably shouldn’t be in the meeting in the system. But I’ve gotten lazy. I don’t do weekly reviews 19

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every week as I used to, my Projects discipline has gotten 11. Focus On Priorities First!sloppy, and I’m not great at capturing everything I The late Stephen Covey taught us about the differencewant to capture on a daily basis. I’m going to re-read between urgency and importance. You can spend a lotGetting Things Done this month and re-up on the core of time doing urgent things, great things, things you cancomponents. justify that are smart and good for your business. But10. Improve Consistency Of Execution there’s also a reason why Verne Harnish recommends not just having a “top ﬁve” list of priorities, but alsoI highly recommend a quick read of The Checklist designating your “one of ﬁve” and getting it done FIRST.Manifesto, which outlines several instances across use That one thing is likely complicated, it’s likely hard, it’scases in which checklists have signiﬁcantly increased likely not the easiest or most fun thing on your list. Butconsistency of execution and results. I’ve been thinking a lot it’s at the top for a reason. I’m going to focus this year onthe past few weeks about how this book applies speciﬁcally to getting that “one of ﬁve” done ﬁrst each day.our business—both how we operate internally as well as howwe service our customers. I’m convinced it has signiﬁcant It’s easy to make New Years Resolutions and simply add moreimplications for us, and expect it could have the same for you. work to your day. Most New Years Resolutions lists add to our workload without subtracting something else that gives us a reasonable chance of achieving the goal. But I think this list is largely a zero-sum on my time. It’s clearly an increase in “asks” of myself, but if I execute well it actually cuts time and saves time elsewhere. 20

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About The Author Matt Heinz brings more than 12 years Matt’s Blog of marketing, business development www.mattonmarketingblog.com and sales experience from a variety of organizations, vertical industries and Monthly Sales and Marketing Newsletter company sizes. His career has focused www.heinzmarketinginsights.com on delivering measurable results for LinkedIn Profile his employers and clients in the way of www.linkedin.com/in/mattheinz greater sales, revenue growth, product success and customer loyalty. Matt’s Business www.heinzmarketing.comMatt has held various positions at companies such asMicrosoft, Weber Shandwick, Boeing, The Seattle Matt on TwitterMariners, Market Leader and Verdiem. In 2007, Matt www.twitter.com/heinzmarketingbegan Heinz Marketing to help clients focus their businesson market and customer opportunities, then execute a plan Brainstorm with Matt!to scale revenue and customer growth. He launched Heinz www.10minutebrainstorm.comMarketing formally in late 2008.two children and a menagerie of animals (a dog, a cat, aﬁsh and seven chickens). 21

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More Information About UsAbout Matt Heinz 8201 164th Ave. NE, Suite 200Matt Heinz is the Founder and President of Heinz Marketing Inc. Matt brings more Redmond WA 98052 Ph. 877.291.0006than 12 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of www.heinzmarketing.comorganizations, vertical industries and company sizes. His career has focused on deliver-ing measurable results for his employers and clients in the way of greater sales, revenuegrowth, product success and customer loyalty.About Heinz MarketingHeinz Marketing is a Seattle marketing agency focused on sales acceleration. HeinzMarketing helps clients achieve sustained sales success by growing revenue from existingcustomers and cost effectively identifying and winning new customers.Contact Heinz MarketingHeinz Marketing Inc.8201 164th Ave NE, Suite 200Redmond, WA 98052877.291.0006www.heinzmarketing.comacceleration@heinzmarketing.comLearn More About Heinz MarketingInterested in learning more creative ways to make the most of your marketing?:Request your FREE 10-minute brainstorm at www.10minutebrainstorm.comJoin our newsletter:www.heinzmarketinginsights.comCheck out our blog: www.mattonmarketingblog.comFollow Matt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/heinzmarketing